Echoes of Thomas-Hill Clash

Kavanaugh allegations draw parallels to 1991 Supreme Court battle

SUPREME COURT

In a prologue to their 1994 book, “Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas,” journalists Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson wrote of how “unresolved the conflict” remained between Thomas, a conservative justice, and Anita Hill, a law professor who testified that he had sexually harassed her a decade earlier.

“Rather than dying down, their clash has become part of an active battlefront in America’s culture wars,” the journalists observed of the nomination battle, which elevated Thomas to the nation’s top court in 1991.

Nearly three decades later, a contest is taking shape with clear parallels to the controversy that pitted the word of Thomas against that of Hill. An allegation of sexual assault has surfaced against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who — like Thomas — has denied the accusations.

A year into the #MeToo movement, the dispute over Kavanaugh’s nomination could test how the culture wars have evolved and what the country has learned since 1991, a year whose convulsive events helped give 1992 the label of “Year of the Woman.” The designation captured the historic number of women who rose to public office that year, in a mass political mobilization finding echoes in 2018.

“I was motivated to run for the Senate after watching the truly awful way Anita Hill was treated by an all-male Judiciary Committee interrogating her about the sexual harassment she endured at the hands of now- Justice Clarence Thomas,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement Sunday.

Murray asked her colleagues to “treat this survivor with empathy and humanity and make sure that the United States Senate in 2018 doesn’t send the signal it sent to millions of women in 1991 who were scared to speak up, afraid to share their stories, and watched on television as someone very much like them was attacked and maligned.”

In 1991, Justice Clarence Thomas faced sexual harassment allegations from Anita Hill. Thomas won confirmation by a vote of 52 to 48.

The revelation over the weekend that Kavanaugh stands accused of sexual assault will widen the meaning of his nomination beyond the judiciary. It is now also a fight over the #MeToo movement and the rules for adjudicating claims of misconduct in an intensely partisan arena.

“Do we assume that women are lying or do we listen respectfully and take their claims seriously?” said Sally Goldfarb, a law professor at Rutgers University who helped draft the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. “I hope the current allegations against Judge Kavanaugh will be treated in a different way than the disgraceful way that Anita Hill’s allegations were treated in 1991.”

Do we assume that women are lying or do we listen respectfully and take their claims seriously?”

Hill told Politico through a spokeswoman last week, as the allegation against Kavanaugh became public, that “the government needs to find a fair and neutral way for complaints to be investigated.”

She added, “I have seen firsthand what happens when such a process is weaponized against an accuser, and no one should have to endure that again.” ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER (THE WASHINGTON POST)

REACTIONS

Public statements made about allegations

Donald Trump Jr.

The president’s eldest son posted an image on Instagram with the caption “Judge Kavanaugh sexual assault letter found by Dems…” The photo shows a note with a message: “Hi Cindy will you be my girlfriend, Love Bret.” It has boxes for “yes” or “no” and seems to compare Kavanaugh’s accuser to a schoolyard crush.

Holton-Arms

A group of alumnae of Holton-Arms, the private girls’ school in Bethesda that Christine Blasey Ford attended, are circulating a letter in support of their former classmate, according to The Huffington Post. “We believe Dr. Blasey Ford and are grateful that she came forward to tell her story,” the draft letter read.

Sen. Susan Collins

The Republican senator from Maine, who’s considered a potential swing vote, said it would be “disqualifying” if Kavanaugh lied about the sexual assault allegation. Collins said she asked about the accusation when she spoke with Kavanaugh on Friday. She says he was “absolutely emphatic” that it was not true.

Candidates in Va.

Vulnerable Rep. Barbara a Comstock, R-Va., said Kavanaugh and Ford “should both testify under oath before the Judiciary Committee.” The reaction came as her Democratic c challenger, Jennifer Wexton, tweeted: “This is bigger than our politics and will impact whether victims can trust Congress.”